Hello, my lovely readers. We're very Mikaelson-centric in this chap. On with the show…

Chapter 2: That Moment Between Heartbeats

Klaus

Whenever Klaus Mikaelson entered an OR he felt calmer. It was as if everything slowed down. The shining instruments. The bright light that kept him wide awake. The music in the background. Something classical. It always amused him to see Elijah's brows rise on the occasions they worked side by side because Klaus did not favor classical for every occasion in his social life. However, it felt appropriate to listen to the rise and fall of a crescendo while he worked. And there were very few things that ruined the experience for him. Tonight, two events would.

Peering at the impossibly tiny beating heart of a yet-to-be-born babe still in her mother's womb; Klaus went about the task of repairing an artery. Tiny babe and mother would be just fine. They'd survived the worst. Having been pulled from the wreckage of the multi-vehicle pile-up on a roadside. And now it was up to Klaus to put the babe back together.

"You will be fine, Adriana," Klaus said quietly. He liked to name the babies. It made them feel more real. He felt that in the naming of people their identity began to form. This little girl wanted to survive and Klaus wanted her to know someone wanted to see her be named, to grow and to play for many years.

Feeling a smirk forming under his mask, Klaus intended on closing the baby's open chest when the lights flickered. His eyes darted upward while his hands froze in their motions. "What the blasted hell?" he gritted out.

"A surge," Lucien Castle muttered, his eyes focused on Klaus' hands.

"A surge?" Klaus let out a bitter laugh. "Yes. I'm sure that is all." He inhaled and began to work with a renewed urgency. He did not have time to use the delicacy he preferred to use. I'm sorry, he muttered silently to the baby. Better that he closed her up quickly than she was left exposed in this manner.

With a sigh of relief, Klaus found that all he had to do was finish closing Adriana's mother, Cathy, and all would be well. Again, he moved to work through the less complicated portion of the procedure when the lights flickered. "Damn it!" Klaus growled out.

Then the lights gave one, last flicker and total darkness descended. "Wonderful!" Klaus snarled out. No one in the OR dared to speak up. "Someone make a call and make sure the generator is being turned on!" he shouted.

"Yes, sir!" one of the nurses called out.

Klaus groaned. This was all any of them needed. So many more patients to work on. He wanted to sit down. He wanted Caroline. Glancing around the darkened room; Klaus wondered why he hadn't asked her to scrub in with him. Ah, yes. His father had snatched her up and dragged her off to deal with his own patient. Probably thought Klaus would become distracted.

"They should be on soon," the nurse reassured Klaus. How wonderful. And in the meantime he had to worry about infection. "Find me a flashlight," Klaus said. "I'm finishing the close."

"Yes, sir," the nurse left the OR and Klaus rolled his shoulders. He took a few steps away from the table and tried to calm himself. Something he could not pinpoint was bothering him. It felt like a prickling just beneath his skin. A sixth sense. A warning.

"Here," the nurse came back in with a flashlight.

"Lucien, take that and hold it about here," Klaus held up his hand to where he wanted the intern to hold the flashlight. "And if you so much as flinch I will make sure you never see the inside of an OR again."

"Yes, Dr. Mikaelson." Lucien held the flashlight in the exact spot that Klaus had demanded that he hold it. Returning to his work, Klaus began to hum Mozart as he went about stitching the woman back together. He might have allowed Lucien to do it if this woman had not been through enough. She did not need an intern's fumbling at her tonight. And it kept Klaus' mind occupied.

"Done," Klaus remarked. He shot his team a grin that none of them could see thanks to his mask. "You may put the flashlight down now, Lucien."

"Yes." Lucien dropped his arm and began to rub his shoulder.

"Might also want to spend more time in the gym as well. If your shoulder is bothering you after that bit you'll surely regret what is to come," Klaus could not help teasing the intern. Unfortunately for Klaus, Lucien reminded him of his younger self. Klaus had been a cocky, arrogant intern until he'd killed a man his own age by clipping an arterial wall and had been unable to stop the bleeding of his patient. He'd found that working with babies was even more difficult. However, his failure had made him appreciate the fragility of a human life and he could think of no one more fragile than a child.

As time passed, Klaus excelled at the art of saving the smallest, most helpless of humans and it made him feel like he was balancing his failings as a human being in his personal life. Then he'd met Caroline who made him realize he was not a terrible man. A lonely, self-destructive man, but not a monster. Not someone who was not worthy of love and compassion.

The more he thought of his wife, the more Klaus longed to be in the same room as Caroline. "Thank you," he said to his team. "Good work everyone." He left the OR and took his mask off. Perhaps Mikael had finished with his work and Caroline might be free to help Klaus perform miracles tonight. The thought made him feel content.

"Klaus." As if she'd been thinking of him, too, Caroline stepped inside the OR. Klaus turned to his wife with a smile. However, his smile dropped the moment he noted the expression on Caroline's face. The fear and the anxiety. "Klaus…Kol's in OR three."

"What?" Klaus felt as if Caroline had used the paddles on him and a shock went through him.

"Klaus?" Caroline crossed the OR scrub room and put her arms around his shoulders. "Klaus." She pressed her face into his shoulder and he felt her body quiver.

It took a full minute for Klaus to realize that he was the one who was crying, not Caroline. His body shook, not hers. "We should go," Caroline whispered. "Come on."

Taking hold of Klaus' hand, Caroline coaxed him out of the scrub room and down the hall. Klaus entered the scrub room for OR three. Davina Claire sat on the floor. Her fists were balled at her sides. She was shaking and crying. When they caught sight of her, Klaus felt like he already knew the outcome. His eyes traveled into the OR and he felt his world coming apart.

Rebekah

"What the bloody hell is wrong with everyone in this bloody hospital?" Rebekah Mikaelson demanded as she wandered through the hospital. She shook her head as other doctors, nurses and patients stared at her in bewilderment.

Shaking her head, Rebekah felt rather annoyed. She'd stepped away from a patient only five minutes ago and she found she could not remember where she'd left the man. She'd traveled through the ER. Gone to three different floors. Checked out various rooms. And Rebekah could not find her patient.

"Rebekah?" Genevieve appeared in front of her. The red-head caught hold of Rebekah's arm as Rebekah attempted to bypass her.

"What?" Rebekah demanded. "I have a patient to attend to. Leave me alone."

"Rebekah!" Genevieve snapped, shaking Rebekah until Rebekah stared back at the nurse, pursing her lips and sighing.

"What?" Rebekah demanded. She tried to find her patience with the other woman. However, she really did need to find that man.

Genevieve led Rebekah into a room and closed the door. "I'll get you a scrub top. Don't go anywhere."

Blinking, Rebekah let out a humorless laugh. "Why would you need to get me a scrub top. This is perfectly clean." To emphasize her point, Rebekah reached down and connected with naked flesh. Her eyes went down and she registered that she'd been giving everyone quite the show. Topless, but, thankfully, not braless, Rebekah had been wandering the hallway and floors looking for her patient. "How did I manage that?" she whispered.

"I think you're probably in shock," Genevieve said. "Did something happen that you can recall?" She stood in the doorway, a look of concern on her face and Rebekah shook her head. She could not think of a single thing that had happened in the last five hours that would distress her to this extent.

"No." Rebekah shook her head. "I did lose a patient though…"

"Alright." Genevieve nodded. "I'll get you a top and then we'll look for your patient." She left the room and Rebekah sat down on the surprisingly empty bed. Weren't all of the beds being used?

Clasping her hands together, Rebekah felt like she'd lost time. Something felt wrong. Something was off. She just couldn't put her finger on what it was. The storm began. Chaos. Elijah left with Hayley and Davina. Bloody patients. Terrified patients. Small children whose parents were missing or dead. Screaming. Crying. Bonnie trying to control the chaos. And her patient. He'd come in and then disappeared. Why couldn't she remember what had become of him?

"Here!" Genevieve came back into the room with a scrub top and a vending machine coffee. "I figured it was either this or I give you a shot of adrenaline and we're not that desperate, yet." Her joke fell flat because Rebekah could not concentrate on the words that Genevieve used.

"I'm sorry. What?" Rebekah took the top and pulled it over her head. Tugging the hairband she'd used to keep her hair in a ponytail out, Rebekah concentrated on the process of pulling her hair back.

"Coffee?" Genevieve held out the steaming cup to Rebekah.

"Oh? Thank you." Rebekah took the cup. She did not make a habit of hanging out with nurses. And she had other things to do than to sit around sipping coffee. "If you'll excuse me."

"Rebekah. I'm not letting you leave this room until you drink that." Genevieve said, her hands were on her hips and Rebekah let out a scoff.

Shaking her head, Rebekah could not believe Genevieve's audacity. "You know that I am a doctor. You have no rights over me."

"I can report to your father that you are endangering yourself and others. You're obviously in shock for some reason. Now, you can either let me help you or…" Genevieve watched Rebekah closely.

Sighing, Rebekah blew on the top of the coffee. "Fine."

After a moment Genevieve relaxed. "Do you remember anything about your patient? Was he tall? Hair color? Clothes he wore? Anything special about him? Anything that stuck out? Like a hammer? Did he have a hammer protruding from someplace?"

Snorting, Rebekah took another sip of her coffee. "No. I don't think he had an object—of any kind—protruding from any part of him." She tilted her head to the side. "He… I don't recall anything about him. I just know that he is my patient. And he's wandered off or someone took him."

"We could look up your patient records. See who you've worked on. That might help." Genevieve's words came to Rebekah from some place far away.

"Perhaps," Rebekah said. She did not feel as sure. What if she had not had time to make a record? What if he'd wandered back into the storm? What if he were dead because of her negligence? Rebekah cupped her still warm coffee as she slid off the bed and Genevieve led her out of the room.

Wandering down the hall, Rebekah spotted Marcel moving toward an elevator. She wanted to call out to him but some part of her decided it would be best to work on her mystery.

Going down the stairs, Genevieve led the way and Rebekah followed her like a dutiful child. They stopped by the front desk. "Can I see the records for Dr. Rebekah Mikaelson's patients?" Genevieve asked the nurse on the desk.

A spark of a memory came to Rebekah. Her feet propelled her toward the sliding doors of the hospital's front entrance. She walked over and stepped outside. "Rebekah!" Genevieve called out as the doors slid closed.

Rebekah blinked as the cold, icy rain pelted her bare skin. "I know who the patient is," she said. Her eyes stared into the darkness as she saw the ambulance roll up. She saw the paramedics come out. She saw her brother's face. Kol. Her patient was Kol Mikaelson. Her patient was her older brother. She'd spent hours trying to track him down now.

"It's Kol. It's Kol," Rebekah broke down. Her knees going out from under her and she knelt in the freezing rain and sobbed.

Freya

Standing inside the OR, Freya Mikaelson could feel her pulse racing. Her eyes stayed on Josh Rouza. Her brother's blood coated the young resident's gloves. He'd shown no sign of fear since taking the scalpel and making the first incision but something could always go wrong. And Freya was waiting for something to go wrong.

Come on, Josh, Freya whispered. She did not dare interrupt him. So long as his primary focus remained on Kol, things should be fine. However, Freya could still feel her nerves shattering. She wanted to look at the gallery. If their father stood there, Freya thought she might lose her calm demeanor. Best not to look up. Best not to look around for any sign of a familiar face outside of the OR room. Best to wait for Josh to finish up.

As Freya stared at the bloodied instruments which worked to coax pieces of wood from her brother's insides, she felt a hand go to her own and fingers slip between her own. Finally breaking her concentration; Freya glanced to her left to find Vincent Griffith. He held her hand and she felt the urge to break down and cry.

As an intern, Vincent had to wait for an opportunity to jump in and help a more experienced surgeon on a case. His duty in this moment was to observe the procedure that Josh worked through right now. And in this moment Freya was in the exact same position. She was family. She meant to stand in the lobby and wait. She was breaking all the rules. And she didn't care. And if it weren't for Vincent holding her hand; she might just stop breathing.

"He'll be okay," Vincent said softly. His eyes were still on Josh but his words were meant for Freya's ears. "I may be new at this, but I can see. Kol will be fine. Josh is fine. You will be fine."

Freya nodded, inhaling and refusing to break down. She hadn't felt like the ground beneath her feet had erupted since Jack's death. Just the thought of her dead boyfriend made her feel a little unsteady. The hand-holding helped. Something solid. Someone to ground her.

"We are fine," Freya repeated. She nodded. Her eyes lifted and she caught sight of the scrub room window. Niklaus. Rebekah. Elijah. Hayley. Caroline. Davina. They'd all gathered to watch. Inhaling, Freya looked back at Kol. She squeezed Vincent's hand before she made her way across the floor.

Freya knelt down beside her little brother. Placing a gentle hand on his head, she leaned close to his ear. "Kol? I do hope that you can hear me, brother. Elijah is here. Niklaus. Rebekah. We're all here. Your family is here. We are waiting for you to make it through this. You are so strong. So loved. Even when you're being a pain in the ass." Chuckling, Freya wished he could open his eyes. She reached out and pressed her hand to his. "Be brave, little brother. Come home to us."

~0~

Surgery completed, Freya stepped into the scrub room before anyone else. She removed her mask and looked at her family. "I think he'll be okay. But we have to wait…" They were all doctors. They knew what could happen.

Elijah came over and pressed her into a hug while Hayley placed a hand on Freya's shoulder.

The door opened behind Freya and she spotted Niklaus going right past her. She turned her head to view Niklaus throw his arms around Josh and hug him tightly. "Thank you, Joshua."

Josh looked shocked, his eyes on Caroline as he patted Klaus on the back. "Sure. I mean…" Josh stopped talking as Caroline held up her hands and moved to hug him, too. Soon Davina joined them.

Feeling a smile appear on her face as she wiped tears off her cheeks, Freya inhaled sharply. "Has anyone informed Father? Or Mother?"

"No. And no," Rebekah said. She looked rather pale.

"Right." Freya nodded. "Well, I suppose I will call Mother and make sure someone with some sense will bring her here. Elijah…"

"Yes. I'll tell him," Elijah said, taking Hayley's hand and moving to the door.

"Someone should tell Finn," Rebekah muttered.

"And Sage," Caroline added. She looked at the Mikaelsons. "She's family, too."

"Of course," Freya nodded. She watched as her siblings made their way out of the scrub room to go and inform various family members and to attend to patients.

Josh stopped to clean up and chat with Davina when Vincent came into the scrub room. "Griffith," Freya said as he moved to a sink. "Thank you. For being there." She watched him closely.

"I did what I would hope someone would do for me; if I had a family member in your situation." Vincent lifted his dark eyes to meet hers. Freya inhaled and offered him a quick smile in return. "I have to call my mother. Inform her of Kol's…condition."

"Right." Vincent nodded. "I'll be in the ER, if you need anything."

"Right. Well… Thank you, again." Freya forced herself to turn and leave the scrub room. She needed to call her mother and to see where she was needed. She knew that over the next couple of days she and her family would be dividing their time between their patients and checking in on Kol. It would be chaotic. It would be stressful. But if Kol turned out to be okay, it would be worth every stress-filled moment.

Going into the hallway, Freya pulled out her cell phone. She listened to it ring before a brief pause and then: "Hello?"

"Mother," Freya paused.

"Freya? Are you alright?" Esther's voice held an edge. Freya suspected her mother already knew something was wrong. Some sort of parental instinct.

"I'm okay, Mom," Freya leaned back against the wall, her eyes on the ceiling. "But…there was an accident. Kol… He was trying to help someone and he was injured—"

"Oh, my God!" Esther's words cut Freya off before she could continue. "Tell me, is he…"

"He was taken to surgery. I was there the entire time. There is a skilled young man you can credit for a very thorough job of saving Kol's life. Right now, Kol is being moved to recovery. He's still under anesthesia, so he's not awake yet. I thought you might want me to call someone and have them come and get you."

"I'm on my way now." Esther hung up before Freya could utter another word. Closing her eyes, Freya hoped that their mother would get there in one piece. Her siblings might kill her if their mother was the next one of the operating table.

Thank you for reading, faving, liking and reblogging.

Peace,

-J